“Dvāravatī” is the term applied to an early historic cultural expression in the region of Thailand that, despite 130 years of scholarly investigation, remains poorly understood in many aspects of its material content and sociopolitical organization. An early scholarly focus on monumental art and architecture set a trajectory for the definition and study of Dvāravatī that emphasized an art historical approach and neglected domestic aspects of the cultural record. Neither is the range of settlement types adequately documented, and chronometric information is underdeveloped. Dvāravatī is typically assigned a time range of several centuries between the sixth and eleventh centuries AD, but there is substantial evidence for a “proto” phase before the appearance of monumental sculpture and architecture. Operating in an era when exogamous ideologies and practices entered the region of central Thailand, Dvāravatī has the potential to illuminate local processes of cultural adoption and adaptation. Only a more holistic approach to documenting material and social content, however, will improve our understanding of the Dvāravatī phenomenon.